1166 Shelf Life.

The Teen likes to fall asleep watching television. She does not like doing this by herself. What this means is a lot of the time I am enlisted to watch something with her until she falls asleep then I’m free to return to whatever it was I was doing. Community is her favorite show for this ritual. It’s pleasant, but rarely loud and intrusive. Unfortunately it’s sometimes very hard to ascertain if she is truly asleep. Sometimes I try to leave and am ordered to sit by what seems to be a sleeping Teen. I’ve seen a lot of Community this way. I’ve seen a lot of Community this way multiple times. The Teen, however, has not seen much of Community. I know this because after 4 seasons on DVD there are episodes she has no memory of at all. So much so that I don’t understand how she even follows the overall plot of the show. Now I just pick random episodes that I feel like seeing again and wait to see if she remembers anything. It’s all very strange to me.

I’ve tried introducing other shows. 30 Rock requires too much attention. She can’t fall asleep to it. Arrested Development is WAY too subtle. Which is a strange thing to say about a show where one of the characters does stage magic and is constantly, though accidentally, killing doves. Bob’s Burgers didn’t seem to work for her. I’m not exactly sure why. She doesn’t really like animation at all, so that might be it. At this point all I know is there are not nearly enough episodes of Community for this to go on for the next four years. XD

I think Married With Children was intended to be irksome. The characters were so patently @$$hats for exactly that purpose. Only the ‘Kelly’ character made it watchable — leave your suspension of disbelief at the door, there really are people that dumb.

okay, a list of shows / movies for you that I personally would recommend trying to find, if only for the weirdness factor: shows first:

Eureka. Misfits of Science.

movies:…well… movie, anyways:

The Wizard Of Speed And Time. yes, it’ll be difficult to find, yes it’s been hashed and slashed up into YouTube, and yes, it IS worth seeing… although you may need to watch it a few times before you totally understand it.

How about Buffy? :) My nieces and my little sister tolerated and eventually became interested in it.
Also, doesn’t like animation? The fool… Is this one of those “I’m blahblahteen now. Animation is for kids,” things or one of those, “Eh… I’d rather be outside…” things?

Yeah, Scrubs might work. When I saw episodes back to back at nights, trying to cram the entire series, sometimes I just fell asleep without knowing and repeating the episode the next night. The slapstick humor its well executed. It’s a win

Putting my vote in the hat for Scrubs. It has an overall continuity, but many of the episodes can also stand alone such that it doesn’t matter if you miss some due to sleep. There are 8 seasons, so plenty of variety for you, since you seem to end up actually watching them. Characters are likeable, sound is generally not too obtrusive.

For movies, if you get Turner Classic Movies (TCM), try How Green Was My Valley or God’s Little Acre. Guaranteed yawners — my oldest brother took a hot date to a drive-in to see the 1967 remake of GLA and they fell asleep in the first half-hour. I tuned into HGWMV a few weeks ago on a chilly afternoon and was out cold within twenty minutes. It’s about the establishment of Public Schools in Wales back in the 1940s — You could tell the Teen it was the pilot for Community…

Put the Highlander on. I used to turn it on every night when I laid down to go to sleep, and I’d always get right up to the end and just slip right off. Saw it at least thirty times without ever seeing the ending.

Either/or. I did it first with the movie, but a couple years later I found the series and ended up doing the exact same thing all over again. Dunno what it is about immortal sword-fighters that makes me so sleepy, but damn if it don’t do the trick.

Have you tried Chuck? Kind of action-y but reminds me a little of Community. Still, it’s super nice of you to stay with her.

Wandered back into my AC town the other day and it was all weedy and my beautiful flowers had died. *sigh* That’s what I get for neglecting them. Still have a bunch of double-necked guitars if you need one, though. :)

Hmm, pretty sure it does, but I have four of them so you can just have one. I’ll leave my gates open tonight (after 7:30 Pacific time) and leave one next to the train station, if you think about it, feel free to swing by and pick one up.

Have you noticed how similar Chuck ,at least the early episodes (all that I’ve seen) is to BF? The main character is nerdy but capable. It’s set in an electronics store, and the boss was an African American (being PC makes me itch) guy named “Big Mike”. Pretty sure BF predated it. Wondered if they might’ve borrowed a little from our favored comic.

Wait, hold on; you need a TV show to watch with the teen? And you are the same Crave as always? So why are you not showing her the 33 seasons of Doctor Who? That should work for a good long while, and honestly, as a fan, you are practically obligated to baptize her thusly. And if she doesn’t like Doctor Who, well, she’s a zygon.

Agreed. Though I’d reccomend starting her on the good Doctor with the series re-boot. But the point stands, Doctor Who is good! And a excellent source of potassium! No, wait, that’s bananas, always bring a banana to a party.

Too thinky? Huh. Even the older ones? They were simpler, though I feel like they are all pretty straight-forward (except when Moffat starts pulling things out of his ass…). No, I’m afraid she really is a zygon. Or an android.

Occasionally, if there’s too much background noise and I forgot my earplugs, I’ll use my MP3 player and put on a song list I’m already familiar with to fall asleep to. The Homeworld soundtrack is good for this. So is David Meece.